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Strange Flowers: The Number One Bestseller Paperback – August 20, 2020

by Donal Ryan (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 2,856 ratings
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WINNER of the An Post Irish Novel of the Year 2020

'Endlessly surprising and incredibly moving' David Nicholls

'A triumph ... the best novel I've read so far this year' Joseph O'Connor

________________

In 1973, twenty-year-old Moll Gladney takes a morning bus from her rural home and disappears.

Bewildered and distraught, Paddy and Kit must confront an unbearable prospect: that they will never see their daughter again.

Five years later, Moll returns. What - and who - she brings with her will change the course of her family's life forever.

Beautiful and devastating, this exploration of loss, alienation and the redemptive power of love reaffirms Donal Ryan as one of the most talented and empathetic writers at work today.

________________

'Here is love as a weapon and a balm ... A gorgeously wrought book' Guardian

'Outstanding ... Tender and beautifully written' Independent

'All the beauty and sorrow of life can be found in these pages' Kathleen MacMahon

'Exquisite ... Beautiful' Anne Griffin, author of When All Is Said

'Ryan gathers together the fragments of broken lives and makes us something new and beautiful from them' Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul

Previous page
  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Doubleday Ireland
  4. Publication date
    August 20, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.79 x 8.46 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1781620415
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1781620410
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday Ireland (August 20, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1781620415
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1781620410
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.79 x 8.46 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 2,856 ratings

About the author

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Donal Ryan

Donal Ryan

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
2,856 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Bonnie Brody
5.0 out of 5 stars Estrangement and Connection
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2021
Verified Purchase
It is a usual day in 1973 and 20 year old Moll Gladney leaves her house in a small Irish town. She takes the bus and never returns. Her parents, Kit and Paddy, are desolate and change from happy-go-lucky church going folks to depressed and distraught beings. Five years later Moll returns and brings with her a history quite unexpected.

This is the story of a family, the people who estrange and return and those who go forever missing. It is a multi-generational story and the author treats all of his characters with empathy and dignity. There are Paddy and Kit, renting land to farm and always feeling less than. Moll is searching for herself and tries to understand her alienation from the church and her husband. Josh wants to be a writer but is cut off from his loved ones and lives his life lost and fearful.

Donal Ryan has a powerful understanding of loss and alienation and his writing reflects the inner pain that people feel when they are not connected to others. He also understands the power of the church and how wanting to be saved through faithfulness may actually harm rather than heal. I love the exuberance of his writing. He is a man who loves words and has the power to describe inner lives and the people who act both with intention or impulse.
7 people found this helpful
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Sandra Fox Murphy
4.0 out of 5 stars Storytelling Through the Rhythms of Generations
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2022
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I purchased this novel based on media posts I’d seen about Donal Ryan’s beautiful writing style and, secondly, based on the story’s description. At first, I struggled with the story. Where is this going? But it all comes together so beautifully before the end arrives. And though many sentences went on and on in the style of Cormac McCarthy, Mr. Ryan did include punctuation and, yes, the writing was tender and pulled me into the place and time. These are my favorite lines in this novel (not meant to be a spoiler): “Alexander felt a clicking into place of things, a feeling that all the strange unexpected things that had happened to him had been moved into alignment by some benevolent all-knowing force, that this small stone building on the land of a rich man in the company of a poor man was exactly where he was meant to be, this his life was unfolding, slowly, strangely, exactly as it should.”

The buildup of the story and characters through generations kept it moving slowly, but I was not disappointed, and the author’s clever withholding of secrets until Revelation kept the reader intrigued and searching, much as the Gladneys and, later, Moll searched for absent loved ones. I look forward to reading more of his novels and his short stories.
4 people found this helpful
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Susan Swansrest
5.0 out of 5 stars Donal Ryan is a brilliant writer!
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2023
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"Strange Flower" by Donal Ryan is a wonderful read. I fell in love with his characters as well as his beautiful writing. After reading this book I have bought all his books. He has never disappointed me. I have never experienced such an overwhelming love of any writer.
One person found this helpful
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Louis Rinaldi
3.0 out of 5 stars Turn a blind eye and just love
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024
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Tough read. Kept going back and forth in time. It was a book with in a book. All
about loving without judgement.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A reminder that being cut off from others has always been there
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2020
Verified Purchase
In these times of social distancing where we are cut off from others, getting to know the characters in this book was so welcomed and so needed. While all of this authors books are very relatable for me having been raised in rural Ireland I think those who through Covid19 restrictions are for the first time experiencing what isolation can feel like will also find it extremely relatable. It brought home to me that isolation and being cut off from others (even those closest to us) has always been a part of life. No other author captures the beauty and sadness of rural Ireland as well as this one. I loved it
7 people found this helpful
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deborah h
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful Irish voice
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2022
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I hate sad novels, as a rule. But this was quite sad and it still moved me. There were times when you thought some Hollywood happy ending was coming, but you can't read the first half of the book without knowing that this is not a writer that's going to take the easy way out. Donal Ryan's use of Irish English is beautiful; his crafting of characters is utterly human but at the same time utterly foreign to an American. You feel Ireland in every sentence of this story, though I wouldn't presume to say you understood it. So often it reads like a poem and a great yarn all at once. I don't know how Ryan gets into his character's heads the way he does or even if their voices are purely true, but, it doesn't matter, because you kind of want them to be.
3 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely book
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
Loved this book and all of it's characters ,when I was done I thought of Maeve Binchy and James Joyces book the Dead from the Dubliners. The author showed us people and stories intertwined and their faith and love and the loses we all suffer as life moves forward! I was sorry it ended but also delighted that the ending reminded me of my relationship with my grandchildren ,the author evoked feelings all grandparents must have .
5 people found this helpful
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Dennis J. OLeary
3.0 out of 5 stars Poignant
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2022
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The language in the book was extraordinary. Ryan's descriptions of Ireland are vivid. Given that I still found the plot a tad tedious.
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Top reviews from other countries

G78
5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
Loved this book. Beautifully written and characters well portrayed. There was one section i wasn’t too keen on and thought of giving up but skimmed through that part and glad I did.
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janet jardine
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2023
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I became engrossed in the first few chapters with the creative description of the characters and the area, but then I found the story became a bit too diverse with Joshua and his storytelling.
Fortunately the story returned to its original setting and I began to enjoy it again.
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Queen Bee
3.0 out of 5 stars overrated
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2023
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Too many words, not enough content. This book was very boring at times. Why tell the story that Joshua wrote? Why repeat the songs? Sadly I feel I am very generous giving this book 3 stars. Not an enjoyable read.
One person found this helpful
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Ruth
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written family drama
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
The language is beautiful and the author shows deep empathy with his characters - both male and female. The rural Ireland setting is brought to life too and I found the story believable for its time and location. Strange Flowers is the first of Donal Ryan's books I've read and has left me wanting to read more.
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Clemens Schoonderwoert
4.0 out of 5 stars A Passionate Irish Love Story!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2021
Verified Purchase
This lovely little novel is in my view another beautiful achievement, one of astounding calibre with now as major subjects homophobia and racism.

Storytelling is wonderful, all characters are believable and likeable human beings with all their fragility, beliefs and religion, also the atmosphere and surroundings of rural Ireland come superbly to the forefront, but the only negative point that I have to make is that at times within this story some sentences are too long, and thus making this story sometimes long-winded and hard to follow.

The story is situated between 1973 right until into the late 1990s, and it describes the feelings and actions of people in all its very fine details, being it in Ireland or in London.

The story itself is about Moll Gladney, who in 1973 leaves her home in rural Ireland and goes to London, and so leaving her parents, Paddy and Kit, distraught and bewildered and none the wiser back at home.

During the five years absence, Moll gets married to a black man called, Alexander Elmwood, and they have a son named, Joshua, when all of a sudden she returns home to Ireland and leaving them behind in London.

What is good to know is that Paddy and Kit's woman neighbour, Ellen Jackman, wife of Lucas Jackman and mother of one boy and three daughters, will also play an important part at the end of this book.

What will happen that after the deaths of Moll's husband, Alexander, and father, Paddy, and son, Joshua, gone to London, she's left with her mother, Kit, and after Ellen's husband, Lucas's death, these two women will finally find love between them, a love that started with a letter written by Moll to Ellen in 1973, and this lesbian love needs to carefully conducted for it will be looked upon in rural Catholic Ireland with prejudice and narrowmindedness during that time, and probably condemned by quite some people.

Very much recommended, although not the author's absolute best, but still its a beautiful and romantic love story, and one that is written with heart and soul, and that's why I like to call this lovely little piece: "A Passionate Irish Love Story"!
6 people found this helpful
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